Of the eight medical students invited for the Pre-Interview Weekend (as it was called), four were from MCO, MUOT, or now UTCOM--John's school. Everyone met up at one of the clinics, not far from ND campus. We were there a little early, and the girls piled up rocks and gravel and banged them on lightposts and scratched them on sidewalks. Silly girls, but when they are this cute, they still help John make a good impression, right?
We walked from there to the game, and I wish I could have taken a picture of the mayhem. Three-and-a-half hours--3-1/2 hours!!--before the game, the roads were packed, and homeowners close to campus were selling parking spaces in their driveways for $10-20 each. There's good money to be made doing it, too. Apparently tailgaters have to get up at 5 a.m. to find a spot on campus to party. Insane! Most of the cars in the background of this picture have a party going on behind them.
This doesn't look like a lot of people, but there were TONS of people, everywhere, way before the game. South Bend shuts down on home game Saturdays. They turn all the main roads into one-way streets, only leading INTO the stadium. If you are not planning to go to the game, too bad for you. Find another route.
This was the tent, in the campus hospitality area, where we tailgated. It was lovely. You had to have a pass around your neck to get in, so it was much quieter with quite a big less drinking and riotousness--not nearly as exciting as outside, but more safe.
They asked the Notre Dame Bagpipe band to come play for us.
It was really fun. They played a jig at one point, and all those in the tent who had graduated from Notre Dame danced in a line with legs a-flailing. Livi found it fascinating. (I have a video of this, but I was unable to load it. Plus, no sound with our camera, so it wasn't especially exciting, and didn't quite capture the moment.)
She wanted to know when those "Musgic people" were coming back.
Mimi loved them too.
More tent. One of these days, I'm going to figure out how to take a picture that helps others to see what I saw. We all had to sign in at that table for some sort of residency scrapbook? I don't know why there is a residency scrapbook.
Mimi slept through the entire first half of the game. Thank heavens! I, apparently, was hypnotized the entire first half of the game.
Liv was delightful. The game was televised, so it lasted from 3:30 to 7:40. And she stayed cheerful. Can you believe it? We started tailgating at noon, and we didn't get back to the car until 8:10. We didn't get to the house where dinner was provided until 8:45. And she was cheerful. They both were, actually. I have the best kids ever!
The Goodyear blimp. Olivia was endlessly entertained by the passing of the blimp ever 3-4 minutes. Thank heavens for the blimpies.
Touchdown Jesus. You know, I had heard of "Touchdown Jesus" before, but I never understood why it was called that. From our seats at the south end of the field, the 130-foot mural on the side of the Notre Dame library is visible just over the north goalposts. And with His arms up like that--well. . . hence His nickname.
The stadium was packed--no empty seats. None! There was quite a large Boston College contingent, but still--no empty seats? You can see the student section there on the left. They were incredibly involved. Whenever Notre Dame made a touchdown, they would start throwing people up and down, like a mosh pit, but without going anywhere. And they all did that Notre Dame jib and waved their arms in the air to another song. So incredible.
And we saw the marching band march through campus before the game. I think someone ought to talk to the BYU marching band. That is a great tradition.So, I think I could live in South Bend. And then you all could go to a Notre Dame football game sometime. We are going to another one in November, and I'll let you know if it's still fun, but wow! So DANG COOL!
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